This is the 10th of 11 posts about our project, Give My Regards to Broadway: Classic Showtunes Reimagined.
The 10th track in our project is "Near To You" from Damn Yankees. Music by Richard Adler and Lyrics by Jerry Ross.
If you can't blame "Yesterday I Loved You" for this project, then you can certainly blame "Near To You". In 2014 I played Linville (and was the 'Heart' tenor) in Damn Yankees at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. I will admit, bad Musical Theatre student that I was, I hadn't really known the show all that well going into the production. I fell in love with the show, but specifically, I fell in love with the song "Near To You" which is sung in Act 2 by Young/Old Joe and his wife, Meg. It is a stunning trio, made only better by the fact that I was listening to incomparable performers (Leslie Becker, Bill Nolte, and Aaron Young) singing it. It literally does not get better than that. When I would listen to it, though, I would always think "how cool would it be if this was covered by the band 'Muse'?"
I then realized I now had two tracks, and I should probably just figure out a few more and make a project.
I was explaining this project to Marcus Thorne Bagalà who I knew I wanted involved however I could, and he immediately called shotgun on arranging this track. Which was fine by me, dude's a genius.
I started contacting my dream team for singing on this track. First I called Zoe Friedman who I had crossed over with at The Fireside, and I knew fronted two rock bands (Thrilldriver, and VIPER, check 'em out, they kick serious ass). I explained to her what we were doing, and the song I wanted her to sing on, and it didn't take long for me to convince her. Especially when I explained what style we were going to be performing in.
Next up I called Creighton Fraker, who I worked with at The Little Beet Table. Creighton, as some of you may know, had an awesome turn on Season 11 of American Idol, making it pretty damn far, and impressing the hell out of a lot of people. I watched his videos after meeting him, which happened to coincide with the planning of this project. I immediately knew he would be a rock star on this track. He fronts a band called Push Phonic who are really great, give 'em a listen, they perform live here in the city all the time, and they're great. Creighton, I think, was initially skeptical with the initial idea when I explained it (because let's be real, the concept for this project is kind of weird, and this track is no exception) but when I sent him the first demo Marcus put together, I think he was sold. Damn am I glad he said yes!
Last up was my secret weapon. Steven Moore and I have been friends since Ithaca, and he's been my go-to "hey I'm doing a thing and need an awesome person" guy for years. On this track, however, I knew Steve has this amazing capacity for rock in various styles, so if I said "we're doing a track like Muse", Steve would immediately fall right into the style so easily. He said yes almost immediately, and my dream team had fallen into place.
We had these three different singers from vastly different backgrounds with vastly different sounds, and both Marcus and I knew that we didn't know exactly how to sculpt this track. So a call was put out to my go-to music director, Andy Collopy (another certifiable genius) who I asked to come in and really help us figure out these vocals. He sat with us and in one rehearsal helped shape everything we were going to be doing. Then we were off to the races.
On the day of recording at Degraw Sound, first we recorded drums for a few tracks, starring mr. Aaron Drescher. Then we got to vocals, and Harper James was on the mixing, and Marcus, Andy, and I hung in the sound booth as one at a time, each singer went in and tracked their stuff.
Holy Crap.
You know when you're listening to someone be so f-ing talented that you don't know what to do with it? That's where we were at. We just started throwing things at them. "Hey Creighton, can you sing this up an octave?" "Hey Steve, what happens if you rock scream, here?" "Hey Zoe, how high can you sing? Sing higher..." Every single time they came through and we built this incredible collection of choices to work with. Lastly, at the very end, Steve says to me "is there like...anything else you want?" That's when we captured the "Lady Larken" scream for Hannah Richter's EDM track ("Yesterday I Loved You").
When we sat back
This one was the most fully fleshed out in my head, heading into this process, and the track ended up so much more than I ever could have even hoped for. It's such a kickass track, and I just love jamming to it. Everything about it makes me so happy and it's the perfect finale to the original 10 tracks of this album. At the end of the revival version of the song, there's this cool crazy harmony thing, that Marcus insisted on keeping in the track. I FREAKING LOVE IT. It makes for such a cool switchover and really wraps the album on a funky, fantastic note.
This track is my "jam" track on the album, it's definitely my new "walking through time square to an awesome beat" track. Also if you're wondering about the band name? We semi (read not really) based this track on "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse. Marcus' nickname in college (and to this day) was/is "Moose". So we went with "The Nights of Müse" figuring it connected all of those dots in a pretty fun way.
Check out all the tracks at www.neddonovan.com/GMRTB
The Nights of Müse (ft. Steven Dean Moore, Creighton Fraker, and Zoe Friedman) - “Near To You” (from “Damn Yankees”)
Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala
Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound
Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com)
Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com)
Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com)
Vocal Direction by Andy Collopy
Guitar and Bass: Marcus Thorne Bagalà
Drums: Aaron Drescher
Vocals: Steven Dean Moore
Vocals: Creighton Fraker (pushphonic.com)
Vocals: Zoe Friedman (zoeblairfriedman.com)
The Nights of Müse (ft. Steven Dean Moore, Creighton Fraker, and Zoe Friedman) - “Near To You” (from “Damn Yankees”)
Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala
Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound
Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com)
Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com)
Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com)
Vocal Direction by Andy Collopy
Marcus Thorne Bagala: Guitar and Bass
Aaron Drescher: Drums
Steven Dean Moore: Vocals
Creighton Fraker: Vocals (pushphonic.com)
Zoe Friedman: Vocals (zoeblairfriedman.com)
If you can't blame "Yesterday I Loved You" for this project, then you can certainly blame "Near To You". In 2014 I played Linville (and was the 'Heart' tenor) in Damn Yankees at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. I will admit, bad Musical Theatre student that I was, I hadn't really known the show all that well going into the production. I fell in love with the show, but specifically, I fell in love with the song "Near To You" which is sung in Act 2 by Young/Old Joe and his wife, Meg. It is a stunning trio, made only better by the fact that I was listening to incomparable performers (Leslie Becker, Bill Nolte, and Aaron Young) singing it. It literally does not get better than that. When I would listen to it, though, I would always think "how cool would it be if this was covered by the band 'Muse'?"
I then realized I now had two tracks, and I should probably just figure out a few more and make a project.
I was explaining this project to Marcus Thorne Bagalà who I knew I wanted involved however I could, and he immediately called shotgun on arranging this track. Which was fine by me, dude's a genius.
I started contacting my dream team for singing on this track. First I called Zoe Friedman who I had crossed over with at The Fireside, and I knew fronted two rock bands (Thrilldriver, and VIPER, check 'em out, they kick serious ass). I explained to her what we were doing, and the song I wanted her to sing on, and it didn't take long for me to convince her. Especially when I explained what style we were going to be performing in.
Next up I called Creighton Fraker, who I worked with at The Little Beet Table. Creighton, as some of you may know, had an awesome turn on Season 11 of American Idol, making it pretty damn far, and impressing the hell out of a lot of people. I watched his videos after meeting him, which happened to coincide with the planning of this project. I immediately knew he would be a rock star on this track. He fronts a band called Push Phonic who are really great, give 'em a listen, they perform live here in the city all the time, and they're great. Creighton, I think, was initially skeptical with the initial idea when I explained it (because let's be real, the concept for this project is kind of weird, and this track is no exception) but when I sent him the first demo Marcus put together, I think he was sold. Damn am I glad he said yes!
Last up was my secret weapon. Steven Moore and I have been friends since Ithaca, and he's been my go-to "hey I'm doing a thing and need an awesome person" guy for years. On this track, however, I knew Steve has this amazing capacity for rock in various styles, so if I said "we're doing a track like Muse", Steve would immediately fall right into the style so easily. He said yes almost immediately, and my dream team had fallen into place.
We had these three different singers from vastly different backgrounds with vastly different sounds, and both Marcus and I knew that we didn't know exactly how to sculpt this track. So a call was put out to my go-to music director, Andy Collopy (another certifiable genius) who I asked to come in and really help us figure out these vocals. He sat with us and in one rehearsal helped shape everything we were going to be doing. Then we were off to the races.
On the day of recording at Degraw Sound, first we recorded drums for a few tracks, starring mr. Aaron Drescher. Then we got to vocals, and Harper James was on the mixing, and Marcus, Andy, and I hung in the sound booth as one at a time, each singer went in and tracked their stuff.
Holy Crap.
You know when you're listening to someone be so f-ing talented that you don't know what to do with it? That's where we were at. We just started throwing things at them. "Hey Creighton, can you sing this up an octave?" "Hey Steve, what happens if you rock scream, here?" "Hey Zoe, how high can you sing? Sing higher..." Every single time they came through and we built this incredible collection of choices to work with. Lastly, at the very end, Steve says to me "is there like...anything else you want?" That's when we captured the "Lady Larken" scream for Hannah Richter's EDM track ("Yesterday I Loved You").
When we sat back
This one was the most fully fleshed out in my head, heading into this process, and the track ended up so much more than I ever could have even hoped for. It's such a kickass track, and I just love jamming to it. Everything about it makes me so happy and it's the perfect finale to the original 10 tracks of this album. At the end of the revival version of the song, there's this cool crazy harmony thing, that Marcus insisted on keeping in the track. I FREAKING LOVE IT. It makes for such a cool switchover and really wraps the album on a funky, fantastic note.
This track is my "jam" track on the album, it's definitely my new "walking through time square to an awesome beat" track. Also if you're wondering about the band name? We semi (read not really) based this track on "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse. Marcus' nickname in college (and to this day) was/is "Moose". So we went with "The Nights of Müse" figuring it connected all of those dots in a pretty fun way.
Check out all the tracks at www.neddonovan.com/GMRTB
The Nights of Müse (ft. Steven Dean Moore, Creighton Fraker, and Zoe Friedman) - “Near To You” (from “Damn Yankees”)
Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala
Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound
Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com)
Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com)
Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com)
Vocal Direction by Andy Collopy
Guitar and Bass: Marcus Thorne Bagalà
Drums: Aaron Drescher
Vocals: Steven Dean Moore
Vocals: Creighton Fraker (pushphonic.com)
Vocals: Zoe Friedman (zoeblairfriedman.com)
The Nights of Müse (ft. Steven Dean Moore, Creighton Fraker, and Zoe Friedman) - “Near To You” (from “Damn Yankees”)
Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Arrangement by Marcus Thorne Bagala
Recorded at Muse Light Music and Degraw Sound
Produced and Mixed by Marcus Thorne Bagala (marcusbagala.com)
Executive Producer - Ned Donovan (neddonovan.com)
Mastering by Steven “SolidGold” Goldman at Four Legs Records (fourlegsrecords.com)
Vocal Direction by Andy Collopy
Marcus Thorne Bagala: Guitar and Bass
Aaron Drescher: Drums
Steven Dean Moore: Vocals
Creighton Fraker: Vocals (pushphonic.com)
Zoe Friedman: Vocals (zoeblairfriedman.com)
